Am I overloading an outlet?

[copper20]

Recently I've had 3 power surges, one each day (Monday, Wednesday, and just 30 minutes ago) and I'm concerned that I might be causing this. Here's what I have hooked up to one outlet:

 

Outlet 1:

 

1st Surge Protector - PlayStation, PlayStation 2, Sega Genesis, Sega Master System, protector is on all the time

 

2nd Surge Protector - Reserved for my Atari 2600, not on all the time

 

I have another outlet that holsters my TV, and a surge protector:

 

Outlet 2:

 

TV

 

Surge Protector: NES, Sega Saturn, Dreamcast, Nintendo 64, VCR

 

Am I causing power surges?

[Osgeld]

easy way to find out is to cut off the switches (or unplug stiff) to a minimum and see if it goes away, most of that doesnt go into a standby mode so all its using is a little bit though the loss in the wall warts, but its usually not recommended to daisy chain power strips like that just cause the plugs on those things are not the greatest and a loose connection, even though it may never move or it feels ok can cause issues, though I am often guilty of having 2 of them in a row myself

Edited November 7, 2015 by Osgeld

[HoshiChiri]

My dad's an electrician, and one of the first things he told me when I was building my collection is: NEVER use more than one power strip on an outlet. Daisy-chains or just using both plugs on asingle outlet, it's a hazard either way. I have 2 outlets running my setup, each has a 12 outlet surge protector. I've never had any issues- only during the summer when the air conditioner goes into the third outlet in the room by itself. If I plug in a vaccum to one of the 2 open spots on the surge protectors, it trips the breaker.

 

If unplugging part of your setup fixes the issue, go get yourself some new gear- doubly so if you have power strips as opposed to good surge protectors. Otherwise, see if you have any larger appliances on the same circuits (starting with anything plugged in/moved around recently). Those tend to cause the most grief if they aren't on decided circuits.

[chas10e]

I'm going to assume by "power surge" you mean the circuit breaker is tripping

 

does the circuit breaker have some kind of "push to test" button on it ? or the outlet ? .... is it an AFCI breaker ?

 

I wonder if one of those surge protectors is "leaking"

[SwampFox56]

As long as you aren't using 2000 Watts on a single Circuit Breaker - you're more than likely okay. With the little amount you have hooked up - you're just fine. I rewired my houses electrical configuration and put my game room on its own Circuit Breaker. My configuration atm is FOUR powerstrip all plugged into ONE power strip. I have 31 Game Consoles all plugged in.

This is okay because I only turn ONE power strip on at a time, and when everything's not in use - I turn it off. Been that way for 2 years now... Only time I threw the breaker was when I accidentally arced a power outlet when I was working on a Sega Saturn. I didn't realize the circuit was hot (I should have had the Saturn power PCB unplugged, but that's besides the point) and it touched the Saturn motherboard and literally exploded.

Somehow I didn't electrocuted, or get pieces of fragment capacitors in my face. (It fried the Saturn though... )

Anyways, I was totally fine.

[SIO2]

Books could be written on this subject and probably have been. I will try to keep this short.

 

Whether you are overloading it or not depends on many things including how your house is wired. Most outlets are not on their own individual circuit. So the wire that brings current to your outlet might also supply other outlets in the same room and adjacent rooms and possibly even light fixtures. That wire (circuit) can only carry so much current before it melts. If it was wired correctly then an appropriate size fuse or breaker protects the wire by disconnecting the current in case of overload.

 

In many cases though people are not well aware of everything that is connected to a circuit especially in older homes.

 

So, is that list of consoles too many for your situation? Hard to say.

 

My personal preference is to have one power strip with a switch on it. I only plug in what I am using and switch the strip off when done. This minimizes the load on the circuit, reduces overall power consumption by making sure everything is off when not in use and saves wear on my power supplies and the wall outlet. This works for me since I only use one or two consoles per day. People who actually swap systems a lot will probably not like this idea.

[fujidude]

You can daisy chain power strips all day if you want, provided:

• You don't trip on them.
• In no place does the current draw exceed the design of the involved equipment.

If you don't know the limits for each area on the equipment, and how to properly calculate it (it's not hard, but is important), then take Hoshi's dad's advice for sure.

 

Now surge suppressors are a different matter. The short rule is they should not be daisy chained.

 

High inductance things like compressor motors (fridge, freezer, ac, etc.) can cause substantial disturbances in a circuit they are connected to. As stated, your entertainment stuff might share a circuit with one or more of those things.

 

And finally, cheap suppressors are garbage. They are really not any better than a power strip most of the time. I don't know what you have, but if you value your there are some good brands. One of my favorites is Furman, though they come in a rack mountable form factor. Great stuff though.

Edited November 7, 2015 by fujidude

[Andromeda Stardust]

Recently I've had 3 power surges, one each day (Monday, Wednesday, and just 30 minutes ago) and I'm concerned that I might be causing this. Here's what I have hooked up to one outlet:

 

Outlet 1:

 

1st Surge Protector - PlayStation, PlayStation 2, Sega Genesis, Sega Master System, protector is on all the time

 

2nd Surge Protector - Reserved for my Atari 2600, not on all the time

 

I have another outlet that holsters my TV, and a surge protector:

 

Outlet 2:

 

TV

 

Surge Protector: NES, Sega Saturn, Dreamcast, Nintendo 64, VCR

 

Am I causing power surges?

A standard Power receptacle is rated to supply up to 15 amps. Most home branch circuits are 15 amps and share several outlets. Kitchens typically use a 20 amp branch and have dedicated circuits for the oven and stove.

 

That said, most consoles only pull a few watts of power. 1st generation PS3 and 360 as well as Xbone and PS4 pull as much as a modern PC, but generally most retro consoles don't pull much. Your TV may be up to 100 or so depending on size. CRTs pull more watts than a flat panel. So you're not overloading your outlet by daisy chaining power strips for small wall warts that mostly sit idle. Unless something is faulty, you shouldn't be tripping the breakers in your surge strip or breaker box.

 

Assume the TV pulled 100 watts, and each game console pulled ten. You would need to be running more than a hundred consoles at that rate to trip the breaker based on current draw. By comparison, running a hair dryer and microwave oven simultaneously could trip a 15 amp breaker. Game systems, not so much.

 

Ruling out the equipment connected to the outlet, the issue may be external to the grid or in your homes wiring. I would definitely get it checked by an electrician. You don't want arcing anywhere in your homes wiring to start a fire and lose all your worldly posessions or put your family lives at risk.

[copper20]

My mom said that our other neighbors had the same power surge as well, so this may not be causing it. The only outlet with two strips is the first one I mentioned, and the second power strip that uses the Atari 2600 is not on all the time.

Edited November 7, 2015 by copper20

[Hyperboy]

[+frankodragon]

[HoshiChiri]

My mom said that our other neighbors had the same power surge as well, so this may not be causing it. The only outlet with two strips is the first one I mentioned, and the second power strip that uses the Atari 2600 is not on all the time.

 

If your neighbors are having similar spikes at the same time as yours, it's not you. There's no way a few consoles are gonna short out a neighborhood!

 

That said, give your strips a look-over, and make sure the spikes haven't fried them. A dead strip will still power devices, but it can't protect them from future surges- I'd hate for all your consoles to get fried. Most surge protectors have 2 indicator lights- one for power, one to confirm the protection is still good. If you don't have both indicators, get new strips. (If they are good, maybe double-check to see if the manufacturer offers a guarantee, and if they actually stand by it. Just in case.)

Edited November 7, 2015 by HoshiChiri

[fujidude]

My mom said that our other neighbors had the same power surge as well, so this may not be causing it. The only outlet with two strips is the first one I mentioned, and the second power strip that uses the Atari 2600 is not on all the time.

 

It sounds like you have some crappy power service. It would be wise for you to get and use some quality protection equipment for your sensitive/expensive stuff. Something with line conditioning and not just surge suppression.

Edited November 7, 2015 by fujidude

[JATO]

Take good advise, I'm suprised at what some people will do..Try Not to Burn your House Down ! Leaving wallworts plugged in is not safe ! I also recently had a CFL nearly catch fire left the room for 5 min came back to a room full of smoke given a few more min I'm sure it would have been in flames..So you want to keep an eye on those as well...Have Fun Be Safe !

Edited November 12, 2015 by JATO

[7800fan]

There shouldn't be any CFL that can start a fire. CSPS did order recall of one brand of CFL back in 2010: http://www.cpsc.gov/en/recalls/2011/trisonic-compact-fluorescent-light-bulbs-recalled-due-to-fire-hazard/

 

but none other in USA. Maybe if you bought them online very cheap and it didn't have UL listing, it may burst in fire someday. Personally stick with buying local for electronic, even the light bulbs.

[JATO]

It was made by ECOSMART perchased at WALLY MA*T it most definitly would have been on Fire given a few more minutes.. I'm gonna try to take the plastic portion apart to try and figure out what failled, if there's enough left to tell..